Alabama came within one touchdown of being a wire-to-wire No. 1 team a year ago before falling to Clemson in one of the best national title games in college football history. The Tide lost a number of elite starters on defense, but they return quarterback Jalen Hurts, who could be a Heisman contender and will be relied upon in a leadership role early in the season.

"I want to learn. I don't want to waste a failure," Alabama head coach Nick Sabantold reporters at SEC media days. "What could we have done better? Because everybody's hurt by the fact that they lost, especially the way we lost that particular game on the last play of the game, but it wasn't the last play. It's what led up to the last play. And I think our players realize that."